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The Westminster Schools Junior High School Peer Classroom Visit

Visited Teacher: Colin Mackey Visiting Teacher: Scott Snyder Date Visited: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 Focus of Observation: To see Colins teaching style and tactics in applying a 21st century technique to his class. Subject Matter Observed: The teaching of creativity. Colin was using the theme of alternate worlds from two different stories to show how the authors creatively fashioned their alternate worlds. He started with a Fahrenheit 451 class discussion using Google Docs and then had the class view part of the movie Inception. He did both of these to show the students how the authors minds worked in terms of writing their stories. His ultimate goal was to get his students to learn how to be more creative. I found his work interesting and his class was both intrigued and engaged by it. Strengths observed: Colin was very good about involving the students in the lecture in a non-confrontational way and was generally entertaining. He is the type of teacher who can make any subject matter interesting simply by his teaching it. Good use of Google Docs (I am learning of these and it was good to see his use of them) to digest Fahrenheit 451 in groups. This gave good structure to the notes that the students were creating in the document. The students then got to see part of the movie Inception. Colin modeled great teaching here by simply letting his students watch the movie without discussion prior. Too many of us suffer from overteaching and Colin did not do this. Teaching the defining rules (physical, cultural, spiritual) for the created worlds of Inception and Fahrenheit 451. After watching and talking of Inception, the students were put into groups and were charged to create their own worlds by coming up with 2 rules from each of the categories. They then were to describe how their world would work (making it concrete) with the rules that they have created. o The groups/students were then to assess their own creativity by summarizing the style of creativity that they had used. Some questions or thoughts: Colin had great rapport with the class using Google docs to teach in an adjusted lecture style. He presented questions and had the students answer the questions he posed. Were they allowed to pose questions themselves? I discussed at length with him about the creativity project that his class is working on. Colin helped me understand this fascinating project that seems to fit our 21st century curriculum perfectly. Other notes: Colin is a very good and passionate teacher and I have seen this each time I have visited him. He cares about both his subject and his students and it shows. As I have noted before, I view Colin as a kindred spirit as a teacher, but that he is also one is better than I am in many ways. I always feel as if I have learned something new from observing him.

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